UiT-breakfast with Andrea Tilche on climate change today: ecological, economic, social and political challenges

UiT-breakfast with Andrea Tilche on climate change today: ecological, economic, social and political challenges

Andrea has been the head of the European Commission work on Research and Innovation and will give a talk on science and policy challanges for climate change solutions

Scientific assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and new evidence from recent literature show that the window of opportunity for staying within the Paris Agreement range of average global warming is still there but may rapidly be passed if no urgent action is taken globally. On the other hand, as also shown by the modest results of the last COP in Katowice, the pace of action does not match with the dimension of the risks.

Some of the reasons of this lack of ambition will be analysed, and some proposals how to increase the pace of action will be discussed, including a new role for Universities of becoming centres of development of the culture of the transition.

Andrea Tilche obtained his Doctor Degree in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Milano in 1978. His scientific career was mainly carried out in Italy where he set-up and directed the wastewater treatment laboratories of ENEA in Bologna. In 1998 he moved to the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission as Head of the Water Research Unit, and later to Brussels where he held various positions of responsibility in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. From 2010 to November 2018, when he retired from the European Commission, he was in charge of the EU climate change research programme and headed the EU delegation at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Since November 2018, he is Senior Advisor and adjunct professor at UiT.

Free breakfast and coffee will be served at 0845 - we look forward to seeing you!

UiT-breakfast is organized by students at the Department of social sciences and discusses pressing political questions in a scientific framework.